NYC bodega worker was being choked before he fatally stabbed shoplifter, sources say as prosecutors weigh charges

A Queens bodega worker who fatally stabbed a Bronx man during an argument over a beer early Tuesday was getting choked just before he knifed the victim, law enforcement sources said.

The unidentified worker at the Mini Mart on the corner of Queens Boulevard and 64th Road in Rego Park was apparently being strangled from behind by Dylan Marino, 21, of Grand Concourse, when the worker drew the knife, struck Marino with the butt end and slashed him, sources told The Post.

That story was backed up by a spokesman for the trade group United Bodegas of America, who said at a Wednesday press conference near the crime scene that it was “clear to everyone that this man was defending himself, and his life could have been taken away.”

“We believe very strongly that [the worker] was trying to defend his life,” said Fernando Mateo, founder and spokesman of UBA. “He came out to ask for his property back. He didn’t come out with violence, he didn’t come out looking for trouble.”

“It’s quite evident that he was attacked — he was choked, he was being beaten and that’s when he reached for a pocket knife that he had in his pocket,” Mateo continued, though he added that he’s neither seen video of the fight nor spoken to the worker, who hasn’t returned his calls.

“He used it to save his own life,” Mateo added. “It happened because he felt [he was] in imminent danger of losing his life [and] need to defend himself.”

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The confrontation erupted at about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, when Marino — who struggled with mental health issues, according to loved ones — allegedly walked out of the Queens corner store with a beer he hadn’t paid for, cops and sources said.

The worker allegedly followed him outside, and an argument broke out right in front of the late-night spot.

Marino stumbled down the block after he was stabbed, with blood pouring from the knife wound near his heart, according to eyewitness Irene Martinez-Schober.

Martinez-Schrober called the cops, then tried to help the wounded man with a two-inch gash in his chest.

“He fell to the side and just before he fell to the side I put my hand on his tummy to see … It was on the center of his chest,” Martinez-Schober, 40, said through tears. “When the stretcher came, you saw it. It was like you saw his heart.”

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She tried to feel his pulse and staunch the bleeding — but the wound, she said, was a “kill shot.”

“He couldn’t talk,” she recalled. “He couldn’t speak.”

Marino’s ex-boyfriend whose couch he was crashing on, said his former partner was a generous and kind soul who was bullied when he was younger and “needed a little help,” but was harmless.

“He’s autistic. He has mental issues, he’s not well. He’s homeless. He has a lot of issues but he’s a good boy,” Kyle Scott told The Post. “He’s very sweet. Very generous. Very kind. He didn’t deserve to go out like that.”

Scott, who had known Marino for nearly two years, said he found out the news Wednesday morning and has been on the phone with Marino’s mother, who lives in Queens, crying over his untimely death, while trying to figure out arrangements.

“He’s an only child. His mother lost her only son over this,” he said. “We were trying to get his life together before all of this happened.”

Mateo, meanwhile, described the clerk as a “very hard worker.”

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“He did not leave his home that day with the intention of killing anyone,” Mateo told The Post on Wednesday.

Authorities rushed Marino to Elmhurst Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead.

The store employee was taken into custody and released — but hasn’t been charged.

“How is it even a possibility?” Scott said about the lack of charges.

“I’m assuming this person has people or witnesses who are claiming that Dylan was the assailant. They’re going to be in his defense,” he added. “Dylan doesn’t have anybody and that concerns me — that he might not get the justice he deserves.”

A spokesperson for the Queens District Attorney’s Office declined comment, saying the investigation into the deadly clash was ongoing.

Additional reporting by Amanda Woods

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